Monday, May 24, 2004
The songs on 'It Still Moves' call to mind material by the Band.
By ERIC R. DANTON
HARTFORD COURANT
Bands from the South are suddenly attracting notice, but don't lump My Morning Jacket into any kind of Southern-rock resurgence.
The only thing the Louisville, Ky., band has in common with acts like Kings of Leon or the Drive-By Truckers is that all three come from south of the Mason-Dixon line, says Jim James, the frontman for My Morning Jacket.
"I'm glad bands from this part of the country are getting attention, but I think it's silly to call it a Southern rock revival," James says. "I just have a hard time with the term 'Southern rock.' I'm proud of where we're from and stuff like that, but I think when you say that word, it limits people's minds and what they think a band can be."
Mix of styles
My Morning Jacket has resisted limitations thus far. The group's loose-limbed amalgams of rock, country and blues earned the quartet copious critical praise last year for its third album, "It Still Moves." James' voice is drenched in reverb, lending an emotional sheen to songs that call to mind classic material by the Band.
The record was the band's first for Dave Matthews' ATO Records, and James says releasing "It Still Moves" was one of the highlights of 2003.
"It's always a nerve-wracking thing when you sign to a new label and you're making a new record and stuff like that, wondering if there's going to be any resistance to it or if they're going to like it or going to want to change it," he says. "Getting it to come out exactly how I wanted it to come out was probably the biggest thrill of the year."